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Giro d’Italia: Nibali escapes growing questions after stumbling on the climb to Oropa

Vincenzo Nibali is known for his bike handling and descending skills and used them well after the finish of the Giro d’Italia’s stage 14, weaving through a media scrum, dozens of tifosi calling his name and a line of team cars to escape down to the Bahrain-Merida team bus parked five kilometres back down the climb.

He perhaps understandably had no desire to talk after his lack of sufficient high-end climbing power was exposed yet again on the 11.8km climb to the Oropa sanctuary made famous by Marco Pantani and his incredible comeback from a dropped chain in 1999.

That day Pantani appeared unbeatable, almost mythical. Saturday, Nibali looked very average as he tried to limit his losses to Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) and even Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) and Mikel Landa (Team Sky) after being dropped as the chasers pulled back Nairo Quintana (Movistar) with two kilometres to go. Nibali was initially well-placed as the front group whittled down under the speed of the Movistar pace. He was not able to follow Dumoulin when he set off in pursuit of Quintana and was then exposed when the racing for the stage victory kicked off. While others kicked again and fought for position, Nibali lost contact.

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He fought for every second but was suffering. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) had been dropped earlier but caught and passed Nibali close to the finish line, a clear indication that the shark had lost his bite.

The clock confirmed that Nibali lost 43 seconds to a rampant Dumoulin, who picked up a further 10-second time bonus. Nibali lost 29 seconds to Quintana, who was fighting his own losses to Dumoulin.

After crossing the finish, Nibali was protected by his loyal support worker Michele Palini and then quickly made his escape. A policewoman tried to stop Nibali riding onto the route of the race but he was determined to get away and did so, slipping between other riders coming up the climb and race vehicles. He was lucky to escape a fine for riding on the course.